#shinai naru gene e

[gatoraid]

親愛なるジーンへ (Dear Gene) by Azuma Kaya

I’m looking back on some of the most memorable BL manga I read in 2023 and copying/ expanding on some of my twitter threads about them to tumblr.

Dear Gene is a spinoff of the pretty well-known Amish themed BL manga The Scene of My Rumpspringa (���ムスプリングの情景) by Azuma Kaya. I know Amish BL might sound like a silly joke, but the series actually treats the subject very thoughtfully.

In Rumspringa we followed a young Amish man exploring the world beyond his community in the 80s. In Dear Gene, we follow another man from the same community, who ended up leaving his family and community for good in the 70s. All the things that made Rumspringa so memorable are present in Dear Gene as well: the nostalgic atmosphere, bittersweet emotions, lively characters and gorgeous art & storytelling.

I really like the story within a story structure: in the 90s, teenager Gene Edwards is sent to spend the summer at his uncle Trevor’s place in NY to help with chores. While cleaning up a room that has not been used in years, Gene accidentally stumbles upon an old diary that records Trevor’s romance with a guy who was also called Gene almost 20 years ago.

Most of the manga follows Trevor and Gene Walker’s story in the 70s, as recorded in the diary. Gene grew up as an Amish in Pennsylvania but decided to leave the community to look for his own place in the world. When he first meets Trevor, he is homeless and has nowehere to go. Trevor, who's a lawyer at the office where Gene works as a janitor, takes him in and slowly they fall in love.

Since we are following the story from an outsider’s perspective, we already know from the start that Gene W is no longer in Trevor’s life in the 90s. Thinking about what might have happened, already feeling sad and bittersweet about this while seeing the characters get together, and then gradually learning the truth about what happened all those years ago make it a very emotional reading experience that is well worth revisiting.

Spoilers after the cut!

I think what really makes Dear Gene stand out is the way it treats the characters' individual journeys. It's very much a romance story, but the characters' family relationships and personal goals are just as important, if not more so, than the romantic relationship between Trevor and Gene.

That's why their inevitable separation is so impactful. There is no big drama or tragic events, just the simple notion that one person cannot be your whole world, that even though you love someone, your other dreams and goals in life might take you far away from them. And that when you love someone, sometimes the biggest act of love can be letting them go so they can fulfill their whole potential.

The beautiful themes and emotions are enhanced by the vivid recurring imagery: plants in different states of growth, the window view from Gene’s room, the scenes from Gene W and Trevor’s childhood, especially the scenes where older Gene is set inside his memories, looking at the younger versions of himself.

And the scene where Trevor, who was abandoned and adopted as a baby, is shown to sit in the shadows while the rest of his family is bathing in light, showing the disconnect he’s felt even from the people who truly love him… Definitely one of the most powerful parts of the story for me.

Even now, thinking about the characters is making me emotional all over again....

There's Trevor, who has estranged himself from his family even though they love and support him, who desperately tries to show his own love by giving and buying people things and is afraid of pursuing his own happiness.

There's Gene Walker, whose hunger for knowledge and life drove him away from his family and community, who still hasn’t forgiven himself for that and who is still looking for something to believe in and belong to, yet doesn’t want those things chain him in one place.

Then there's Gene Edwards, the cheeky teen who cannot stop reading his strange uncle’s very personal diary, because he’s been trying to figure out his own sexuality and finds something that feels familiar on those pages. I really would have wanted to see more of his story! Maybe there's still room for one more spin-off in the series?

And finally there's Karen, romance novelist and Trevor’s ex-fiancee who becomes a great friend to both Genes and who definitely deserves her spot in the ’amazing women in BL stories’ hall of fame. Cannot stress how much I love her.

Even though I really wish the story would have been a little longer and the ending didn’t make me ugly cry the way Rumspringa did, Dear Gene is still a very beautiful and thematically rich story.

This whole manga series handles topics like family, belonging, growing up and becoming your own person in a very poignant way. Romance and sex are very important to the story (Azuma Kaya draws ero scenes so beautifully I'll never get over it), but they are not the only thing that is important in the storyline or the characters' lives. Azuma Kaya is definitely one of those creators who are showing just how versatile BL manga can be, and how many types of stories can be told through BL!

Dear Gene has not been officially licensed in eng yet. The jp version is available on all major Japanese bookstore and ebook sites, I personally read it on ebookjapan. The eng version of The Scene of My Rumspringa can be read on Bookwalker, Inkr and Comikey.

PS I totally recommend buying the special edition for Dear Gene vol 2 because it comes with a lovely 20 page bonus comic where Gene E comes to visit his uncle for Christmas and we get to meet all the characters one more time!

[littleeyesofpallas]

Shinai  naru GENE e[親愛なるジーンへ]

Dear Gene

[vivichancollection]

week 3: shinai naru gene e

received 09.08.2024

[kristina-sia]

Dear Gene / Shinai naru gene e

Azuma kaya